sarah ockler :: author of TWENTY BOY SUMMER

Here are some common questions people ask me. Got a question that’s not covered? Leave a comment at the end of the page, or contact me!

On Writing

Where do you get your ideas?

EVERYWHERE! Every single person I meet inspires something in my characters, whether it’s a physical quality or a quirk or something she’s said. Every place I visit, job I’ve worked, movie I watch, book I read -– all of these things inform my fiction. I also read the newspaper for ideas -– even the shortest news story can spark an idea for a character or plot point. I’ll start with one or several of these little gems and make the rest up as I go! That’s one of the great things about fiction writing. The seeds of ideas are everywhere, just waiting to be planted and watered and grown into something cool.

How long have you been writing? Did you always want to be an author?

I started writing stories and poems back when I was still losing teeth and wearing tank tops without a bra. As for wanting to be an author, sure, that was always the dream –- but it was just that. A dream like becoming a princess without royal ties or an astronaut without NASA training. I didn’t think it was possible to become a real author until I was in the midst of completing TWENTY BOY SUMMER, and my husband helped me see the truth: that I am a writer, and that becoming an author is my dream, and the only one who can stop me from achieving it is me.

In other words, since I was a toddler, and yes.

Who or what inspired you to become a writer?

You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child? My writing inspiration is kind of like that. So here’s the multi-part answer.

• Mom and Dad. When I was 6, I wrote book about the movie, E.T. Actually I just pretty much wrote out a plot summary of the movie and added in some alien drawings. My teacher loved it, I got to read it to the whole first grade in the library media center, and I got an A+++! But when I rushed home to beg Mom to find me a publisher, I got the copyright infringement talk, and she and my Dad encouraged me to try writing my own stuff. So, I did!
• High school. I hated it! Most of the time, my journal was the only one who would listen. Because of that, I got into the habit of constantly observing everything around me and recording it in detail on the page, along with my feelings and hopes and dreams and fears. Those habits eventually gave way to storytelling.
• Alex, my husband. One of the first times Alex and I hung out, he asked me if I was a writer. He saw it in me — the way I wrote emails, the stories I told, the way I’d get so excited to talk about writing or books. Years later, when I was struggling with a full time job, graduate school, and trying to finish Twenty Boy Summer, wondering whether business school was the right path for me, Alex reminded me with a simple phrase: “You’re a writer.” Sounds simple, but I needed to hear it. I got off the corporate treadmill and finished my book. And now, whenever I’m struggling or doubting myself, Alex reminds me (he also accepts my writerly neurosis. It’s not easy living with us writers!)!
• Mike Henry. Mike is a fellow writer and the co-founder of Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, where in 2003 I took my first official writing and critique workshop. I submitted an essay for Mike’s class about some trouble my BFF and I got into when we were 15. After the critique, he told me that the piece had a strong teen voice and asked if I’d ever considered writing for young adults. I hadn’t, but Lighthouse had a YA novel class starting up, so I decided to give it a try. Turns out Mike was onto something. Through the YA classes, I wrote TWENTY BOY SUMMER.
• Sarah Dessen. Through the Lighthouse YA novel class, I began to study contemporary YA authors such as Laurie Halse Anderson and Deb Caletti. I was in the bookstore picking up YA reads for our next discussion when I spotted Sarah Dessen’s HOW TO DEAL (the movie tie-in version for THAT SUMMER and SOMEONE LIKE YOU). I decided to buy it with the others and after I read it, I returned to the store to get the rest of Sarah’s backlist. It was like reading her stories turned on the light bulb and I knew that I wanted to — that I was born to — write stories for teens.
• Other writers. The more I read, the more I want to write, and the more I want to push myself to be better.

Did you go to college to be a writer? Do you think students who want to become writers should major in English or Literature?

I studied Communication in college, which has some writing components but not a creative writing focus. I don’t think you need to major in English or a writing-related discipline to become a writer. I definitely recommend taking writing classes, joining a critique group, and reading tons of classic and current literature, but you can do all of those things while majoring in astrophysics or psychology or architecture if you want to. And if there’s something you might love writing about, like history or anthropology or earth science, then yes, you should definitely follow that course of study. But only if you’re really into the subject, because you’re making a pretty big financial, emotional, and time commitment to study something for 2 to 4 years, so whatever it is, make sure you really want it!

Do you have any other advice for aspiring writers?

Yes. And you must follow it precisely in this order:

1. Don’t do it. Find something else to do – anything anything anything but writing. It’s an insane emotional roller-coaster involving a lot of self-loathing, crying, fear, doubt, and woefully shameful antics of stupidity. Go to college or grad school or med school or clown school. Invent something or build something or sell your soul or sit on a bean bag chair and eat Veggie Booty all day as long as you do not become a writer. To be a writer by choice, you have to be crazy, desperate, just plain stupid, or some way-too-strong cocktail of the three…
2. I didn’t really mean that. If you’re still with me, you’ve learned the first and most important lesson about being a writer. We don’t say no, even when everyone else tells us what a bad or hopeless or moneyless or pointless dream it is. We learn to say, “Hey, naysayers! You say crazy, I say passionate, okay?” And we keep going. We write again and again and again, no matter what, because not writing is a choice. Writing… just is.
3. Read. A lot. Read anything and everything you can get your hands on. Read first for enjoyment, and then again and again for analysis. Read lots of stuff in your genre and then mix it up. Read cereal boxes and soup labels if nothing else is available… Just keep reading!
4. Write. You have to write for real. I’ve probably spent more hours in my life daydreaming and talking about writing than actually writing, and I’m making up for it now at full speed. Write what excites you. Write what makes you laugh and cry. Write the stories that keep you up at night. And no matter what, do not walk away from it.

That’s a good start, anyway.

What is your favorite part of the writing process?

I really love coming up with new ideas, because it’s always fun and exciting to work on a fresh and limitless blank page. But I think the part I get most excited about is the revision process, because it’s in revising that the truest core of the story comes through, stripping away the excess to reveal the jewel of a book beneath. At least, that’s the goal of revision, anyway. But whether I’m revising for an early agent draft or alongside an editorial letter, I find that revision is when I finally figure out what the book is really about, and it’s a great moment.

What’s the most difficult part of the writing process for you?

Finishing. Seriously. I’m so obsessive, constantly questioning whether I used the right words, said the right things, described everything in a way that perfectly translates what’s in my head to what goes into the readers’ heads. Finishing is scary and painful, and whenever I send a manuscript to my editor, it’s like I have to really talk myself into hitting that send button, even if I know I’ll have another chance to make changes. It’s a long road. The last mile is always the hardest, right? And my second favorite part, on a less philosophical note — writing the synopsis. I might rather have a cavity filled! Argh!

On Reading

Who are some of your favorite authors or literary influences?

Writing is so powerful… I truly feel that I take something from every author I read, whether fiction or nonfiction, young adult or middle grade or adult, science fiction or romance or… anything! But the authors who’ve most directly influenced my writing, both motivationally and stylistically, are:

• Jack Kerouac. His writing style is so full of life and soul and experience and craziness… reading his work is like going on a whirlwind trip where you don’t stop seeing and tasting and doing and just being until the very last day, and then you totally crash! His voice comes through with such passion and authenticity that I can’t help but be inspired (even though he pretty much burned out and drank himself to death. Um, don’t try this at home. But do read his books!).
• Anais Nin, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I admire these diarists for the truth, beauty, and raw intensity of their writing. They were not afraid to be honest, sharing their private pains and joys with the world through their journals and letters. Each of them touched me in such profound ways that I become re-energized to write just from reading a few passages of their works. In fact, whenever I see one of Nin’s dairies in a used bookstore, whatever edition, I buy it — even if I already have the same one at home.
• J.R.R. Tolkein. A master story-teller, world-builder, and creative thinker from whom writers can’t help but learn!
• Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Laurie Halse Anderson. When I first started seriously exploring teen literature in a YA novel class as an adult, I studied these contemporary YA authors and was so inspired by their voices, character development, and head-on tackling of tough issues that I knew without hesitation that I wanted to write in this genre myself. I continue to look to these modern YA masters for literary guidance as they continue to reach out and connect with audiences through their compelling characters and stories.

What are some of your favorite YA books?

The list is ever-growing, but right now, here are some of the top contenders:

• Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
• The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
• A Separate Peace by John Knowles
• The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (this isn’t totally YA, but kind of!)
• Red Glass by Laura Resau
• The Season by Sarah MacLean
• Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti

On TWENTY BOY SUMMER

What is the symbolism of the ocean and the sea glass in TWENTY BOY SUMMER?

The connection with the ocean is paramount–the unending hugeness of it, and the way it’s just so ancient and unchanged, even through its own tumultuous-ness, even as everything else in our lives collapses and rebuilds, over and over.

The sea glass element grew along with the story, both from my own love of sea glass and because it’s just such a part of the ocean. In the story, Anna had never seen the ocean before her vacation with Frankie, but her friends would bring sea glass home for her in jars every summer after their trip.

For me, the sea glass in Twenty Boy Summer symbolizes both the ocean itself and the hearts of those impacted by the death in the book, shattered after tragedy, never again whole, but transformed over time and the unending ways of the universe into something that’s still beautiful and unique.

Legend says that pieces of sea glass are the tears of a lovesick mermaid who was banished to the bottom of the ocean by King Neptune after she fell in love with a sea captain. Anna relates to this story through her own unrequited, impossible love for Matt, so the sea glass ties into that as well. Readers will probably find other symbolic meanings throughout the story, but I don’t want to give too much away here!

TWENTY BOY SUMMER deals with some heavy issues. How did you get those feelings into words?

I guess I’ve always been better at expressing my feelings through writing, so when it came time to write about the heavy emotions and issues in the book, it felt pretty natural. I’m the type of person who writes to get my feelings out and to work through issues, so during the novel writing process, I try to put myself in the heads and hearts of my characters and let it flow on to the page as if I was writing about my own pain or elation or confusion or whatever emotion I’m trying to convey in the scene.

How much of TWENTY BOY SUMMER is based on your real life?

Not as much as people think! I get this question all the time — often from friends and family who swear they recognize themselves in the characters or hear my voice as their reading Anna’s narrative. When I write about teens, of course I go back to my own teen years, remembering my best friends and first loves and all the crazy stuff that happens at that age. And from those memories, I take the essence, the feelings, the ups and downs, and use them to inspire the characters and their relationships and actions. Did I ever meet boys on summer vacation? Yes. But not exactly like Anna and Frankie. Did I ever lose someone I loved? Yes. But not a sibling or boyfriend. And I think that’s the point of good fiction — not to replay experiences exactly as they were, but to recreate their essence, that one bit of emotion or memory that all of us can remember and connect with. So no, TWENTY BOY SUMMER is not based on my life. It’s about love and loss and friendship and hope. In that way, it’s about *all* of our lives.

Which character in TWENTY BOY SUMMER do you relate to most?

Definitely Anna. I was a lot like her when I was a teen — really smart and introspective, but shy and not all that confident, especially with boys. I had her quiet sarcasm, too. But I wasn’t as good at managing hyper-outgoing-borderline-obnoxious people like Frankie! Anna was so loyal to their friendship that even as Frankie changed after her brother’s death, Anna never really gave up hope that things could get better. I don’t know if I would have been as patient or as forgiving, but then, there are things about Frankie I relate to as well. The things she does for attention and love, even though they’re not the best choices — I get that, too.